FROM THE EDITOR
As fall arrives, it seems like the number of guests passing through
our door for a meal increases. A coffee and dessert here, a dinner
there - on a weekly basis there is always something to plan, organize
and prepare. Autumn is a great season to entertain and catch up with
people you may have missed over the summer or want to see before
the ensuing holiday season. The produce is plentiful, and shorter days
and cooler nights make for a great motivator to cook at home and create a cosy atmosphere.
The fifth issue of Countlan Magazine focuses on the theme of connection. When we entertain, the innate desire to connect with people
in our lives fuels our desire to invite, shop, spruce, primp and cook.
Thanks to this driving force, we make time in our busy schedules to
contemplate what will bring pleasure
and entertainment to the guests seated
at our table.
In the following pages, we focus on the
four main areas of entertaining that
help facilitate connection: ingredients,
tableware, technology and resources.
As always, I hope Countlanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collection
of stories from around the world inspires you to entertain at home and to
establish new traditions with family and
friends this season.
Sarah Lambersky
Editor and Co-Founder

What's Cooking: Chestnut
Soup with Mushrooms
and Thyme
30
A Taste of Autumn in
Southern California

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From Mexico City to Beirut, you will meet a
handful of individuals who are doing their
part to better connect consumers with food.
Take San Francisco based, Good Eggs, an
e-commerce site that enables you to order
food directly from the farm to your door,
or Souk el Tayeb, a Beirut based farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
market and food education organization
that is bridging cultural and religious gaps
in Lebanon through its local food events.
Food travels from the land to our tables one
way or another; these are the people keeping things interesting.

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Photo Credit: Julia Cawley

Passionate foodies and social entrepreneurs take the limelight of our food section
this season.

Illustrations by: Lukáš Chládek

//Food

The Need for Bees
and Urban Honey
Ever since it was reported that bees in North America and Europe were increasingly threatened by
what is known as colony collapse disorder (CCD), a situation where strong bee colonies can lose their
entire workforce in a matter of weeks, beekeepers from all walks of life have stepped up in rural and
urban settings to join the crusade and reverse the trend of dying bees.
Countlan speaks to the newest generation of apiarists who have taken on the plight of caring for bees
and producing honey in the most unusual settings. The relationship between bees and global food production becomes a bit clearer as does why we should pay attention to what is really in our honey jars.
A Few Good Bees to Watch on Film:
01 More Than Honey (2012)
02 Queen of the Sun (2010)
03 Vanishing of the Bees (2009)

Family Honey
{ D u n d a s, CANA D A }

Photo Credit: Luis Albuquerque

Soon after graphic designer Russell
Gibbs relocated from urban Toronto
to Dundas, Ontario, a quaint historic
valley town near the Niagara Escarpment, he felt the urge to do ”something“ to help him connect with local
growers. Through this mission, he
also discovered a love for connecting
with the land — something that was
missing from his city life and design
career.

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Photo Credit: Jonathan Bielaski

//Food

After learning that his beekeeper uncles were not going to keep their
bees forever, Russell jumped at the chance to maintain the sweet business. ”I have five colonies right now. There are always plans to expand,
but I have to balance making honey with my other career — running my
own design business. Oddly enough, beekeeping is the perfect companion. It gets me away from the computer and puts me right in the real
world, where I am just a small speck“ says Gibbs.
Gibbs Honey is entering its third season. Russell’s honey (which he prefers to eat straight from the spoon) is made from bees that feed on
clover, buttercups, and wild grapes. Russell sells his honey packaged
in simple, timeless bottles at a Sunday farmers’ market in Burlington.
When he has harvest, he is lucky to keep stock for longer than a month.

Photo Credit: Jesse Senko

www.gibbshoney.com

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HeRoiC Honey
{ a a R H u s, D e n m a R K }
HELT is a Danish word meaning ”hero“. ”I think bees do
a heroic job“ says Anthony Lee of Helt Honey, a small urban honey company based in Aarhus, Denmark. Anthony,
a trained archaeologist, moved to Denmark a few years
ago after meeting a Danish girl on his travels around Europe. He soon found that archaeologists were not in high
demand. With time on his side and an interest in animals
and wildlife, he signed up for an evening beekeeping class.
Hooked on this new body of knowledge, Anthony secured a
summer job with a local beekeeper who happened to run
one of Scandinavia’s largest beekeeping enterprises. He
spent three years learning all about bees, honey, and the
surprisingly backbreaking work involved in beekeeping.
While learning his trade from these experts, an idea for
his own small honey company was germinating. Living in
downtown Aarhus, Anthony decided to set up beehives by
his apartment. After two years of preparations and market
testing, Anthony was ready to work full-time on Helt, which
launched in 2012.
Photo Credit: Anna Overholdt

”Each time I open a beehive, I still get
this peaceful feeling and I am slightly
mesmerized watching bees in their
wild, untamed environment,“ says
Anthony. He views honey as both an
economic and social means to life.
The majority of Helt’s honey comes
from the Aarhus area, although Anthony also collects, the rare heather
honey from Denmark’s west
coast. His dream is that an
increased demand for honey
will encourage a new generation of beekeepers to take
up the profession and ensure
a healthy future for bees.
www.helthoney.dk
Photo Credit: Heidi Mølgaard

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mountain Honey
{ K a R s, t u R K e y }
In the mountainous region of north eastern Turkey, in an
area once part of the Silk Road, apiarists tend to bees in
rural villages. The apiarists are a part of Balyolu, a social
enterprise that creates economic opportunities for rural
women in the area.

Photo Credit: Cat Jaffee

Catherine (Cat) Jaffee, Balyolu’s founder, launched the
beekeeping and honey tourism organization after accumulating experience in the region as a Fulbright scholar and
National Geographic Young Explorer. Once Balyolu was in
motion, the local communities were eager to commit to
the project and the steep learning curve that comes with
keeping bees. ”I don’t think they (the local communities)
realized how much work it (making honey) takes and that it
wasn’t easy money. Even I was caught off guard, and I have
been working at this for five years!“ says Cat. The challenges for the team are both large and small: ”Every night
we have bears attacking our village, and bees swarming
when they shouldn’t. There are mistakes which are normal for beginners, but it’s hard because everyone
is trying to learn“ says Cat. ”The beginning of anything is always difficult,
and beekeeping is no exception.“
As for the honey, at an average altitude of 2,000 meters, Balyolu’s bees
pollinate plateaus of wild mountain
herbs and flowers like thyme, rosemary, and spearmint, resulting in a
complex-tasting flavour.
Near the village where the organization is based, bees also feast on
the pollen of wild roses and chamomile as well as heartier grains such
as sainfoin and wheat. ”Later in the
season, we see wild mountain thistles, which are unique to this altitude
and region. The biodiversity results in
a light-coloured, fragrant honey that
tickles the back of your throat.“
www.balyolu.com

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pResseD Honey
Mein Honig, a small
honey startup that
launched in Upper Austria’s Kalkalpen National
Park, is the story of six individuals, 20 bee hives and a honey making technique connected to
an indeginous warrior tribe in the
Amazon forest in Brazil. It started with David, a nature loving,
self-taught beekeeper, who
inherited three bee hives
from his father when
he was 13 years old.

{ u p p e R au s t R i a }

David, influenced by his father who had lived with the
Rikbaktsa tribe in the Amazon for a few years, travelled
to Brazil to learn about his father’s past. It was in Brazil
where David studied the Rikbaktsa tradition of making
pressed honey.
Back in Austria, he assembled a team who shared the
same ecological and economic concerns to raise awareness of the importance of bees in the ecosystem. Together they embarked on creating a pressed honey of their
own. From its packaging to the honey, everything about
Mein Honig is hand made and a labour of love. ”I spend
evenings covering the caps with our special paper. I walk
through the fields looking for lavender to dry and put in
our Bienenpatenschaft boxes, an opportunity to sponsor
a Queen Bee and recieve the honey from the colony’s seasonal production“ says David. The team prefers to keep
their pressed honey operation small, in favour of producing a higher quality product; something that David calls
pursuing prosperity without growth. ”So we would rather
stay small and keep our work fun.“
www.meinhonig.at

Photo Credit: Thomas Lichtblau

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Rooftop Honey
{ M e l b o u r n e , AUST R ALIA }
What Vanessa Kwiatkowski calls ”a moment of clarity“ led
her and her partner Mat Lumalasi to launch Melbourne
City Rooftop Honey, a project that cultivates honey from
beehives located on underused rooftops around the city.
Fuelled by concerns over food production and the worldwide decline of bees, Vanessa — an avid gardener already
accustomed to growing her own food — saw the project as
an opportunity to raise awareness of the various threats
and diseases that put honeybees at risk. By offering hive
adoptions and sponsorships, along with partnering with
local restaurants, Melbourne City Rooftop Honey connects
people, food, sustainability, collaboration, and community.
”We encourage people to get involved
in any way possible“ says Vanessa.
”We teach people about bees and
how to keep their own hive, and encourage the general public to plant
bee-friendly plants to attract bees
and supply food for them.“ Currently,
Vanessa and Mat oversee 73 hives in
the city where they install, maintain,
and care for the hives using natural
beekeeping methods.

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Photo Credits: Robyn Charnley, Justin Emerson, Latchie Mathison

www.rooftophoney.com.au

//Food

sKinny jaKeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fat Honey
{ m i n n e a p o l i s, u s a }
After being banned for more than 30
years, urban beekeeping was legalized by the Minneapolis City Council in
2009. It was at this point that Jake and
his wife decided to take advantage of
the new ordinance and set up a hive in
their backyard. It set the groundwork
for what would evolve into a network
of more than two dozen backyard urban apiaries throughout the city.
Countlan talks with Jake on the name
of his honey brand and the importance of urban apiaries.

on naming your unpasteurized, raw,
local honey and beeswax:
my name is jake and iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a rather lanky fellow, so the
skinny jake part came from that. Fat honey felt like it had
some attitude, and made a good juxtaposition to skinny
jake. i tend all of our hives personally, and i am a big advocate of local honey. i love our bees and our honey, and
i often remark how fat and happy they are. thus, skinny
jakeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Fat Honey.

why urban (backyard) honey?
as urban populations continue to grow, the disconnect
between how and where food is made, and how it is purchased and consumed grows larger. people that host
hives in their backyards (and their neighbours) get to
see a kind of farming and harvesting happening right on
their property. they get to eat honeycomb freshly drawn
from a hive, they get to smell the welcoming aromas of
beeswax and nectar that waft from the hive on a warm
day, they get to see an unordered banner of bees in the
urban sky condense into the nectary nebula of the hive.

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A front row seat:
the closer you are to your food, the more clearly you
see its value. Honey doesn’t just appear on shelves —
one bee makes .083 teaspoons of honey in its entire
life. it takes hundreds of thousands of bees to make a
bucket of honey.

//Food

what you have learned as a beekeeper:
beekeeping, while incredibly fun, is a lot of work. it
is a type of farming. the amount and quality of honey
we produce is dependent on the health of the bees
and the weather. When our honey supers (the boxes
that are stacked on beehives) are full, they weigh upwards of 60 pounds, and make for some heavy lifting.

how to eat honey:
i love it in my morning tea. i know it may seem simple,
but i think its aroma and ﬂavor come through best
in the simplest applications. my wife, Kerstin, enjoys
baking with it, especially in almond cake.
www.skinnyjakesfathoney.com

Photo Credit: Kerstin Hansen

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>> BRINGING CO
//Food

Gastronomic Renewal
{ m e X i C o C i t y, m e X i C o }

three Comilona Food projects:
pichón is a pop up restaurant. every sunday pichón ﬁnds a
new location from which to cook and offers dishes made from
local ingredients.
latitud started in 2012 as a weekend brunch ”pop-up“ concept serving anglo-jamaican-mexican food using mexican
ingredients.
Ñham Ñham is part of the recent food truck boom in mexico.
they make Vietnamese food which is new for us.

Mexico City is undergoing a gastronomic boom. There is an
influx of new underground dining experiences, food trucks
and pop-up restaurants joining the city’s puestos, fondas,
and food markets. Popular international foods such as
bánh mì and kebab can be found alongside the ubiquitous
tacos and fresh juices. Even the Canadian government
sponsored a food truck to serve poutine.
Enter Comilona: a new quarterly travelling food market
in Mexico City. Comilona was established to support the
growth of small scale independent food projects and invite
people to connect and experience the city through the onslaught of new food. Started by Andrea Viedma, the Comilona food platform provides emerging food concepts with a
venue and a means to reach a broader audience.

The first Comilona food feast took
place in an abandoned space in downtown Mexico City in August. ”Each of
the projects involved with Comilona
has a unique way of experimenting
with food. Given most do not have a
permanent venue of their own, we decided to gather all these small businesses together in one single venue
and showcase what they are capable
of to a larger audience“ shares Andrea. ”By doing this, we hope to encourage people to try new foods that
are outside of what they would get
from dining at the usual restaurants.“
With the success of his first event,
Andrea is already looking for a larger
venue. In between Comilona events,
the plan is to host food related workshops, lectures and film screenings.
www.comilona.com.mx

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ONSUMERS CLOSER TO FOOD <<
//Food
We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t just like to cook food; we are interested how it gets to our
table. Short of becoming farmers, we selected six businesses that
will help you establish a closer connection to what you eat and the
people who make it.

Illustration By: Andrea Davalos

Photo Credit: Dylanelee

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High Tech Farm Delivery
{san FRanCisCo}
In typical Bay Area fashion â&#x20AC;&#x201D; where
San Francisco meets Silicon Valley
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Cathy Bishop and Rob Spiro approached the challenge of creating
a closer bond between people, food,
and technology. Good Eggs is an online platform where customers can
order directly from local farmers and
artisanal food-makers, with goods
delivered to their home or dropped off
at a convenient location. Launching a
pilot of their digital marketplace in
2012, they followed with a full service
and distribution system in the Bay
Area in early 2013.

Ou r m ission is
t o g r ow
a n d s u st a in . . .

Photo Credit: Colin Price

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. . .lo c a l fo o d
s y s t e ms
w o r ldw i de .
Driven by a mission to grow and sustain local food systems worldwide,
Cathy and Rob built Good Eggs based
on feedback they received from local
producers who wanted to easily connect with consumers. ”We’re building
tools to service the local food movement — also called the ”integrity food
movement“ — and the amazing food
producers who are a part of it“ Rob
explains. ”Ultimately we see better
food as a means to a better world,
where the folks who succeed are the
ones doing things right: caring for
their land, their communities, and
making food with integrity.“
Good Eggs is gaining momentum,
adding new producers weekly to their
roster of over 150 Bay Area farmers
and producers. The team will soon be
expanding to Brooklyn, Los Angeles,
and New Orleans.
www.goodeggs.com

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From the Motherland
{ H a m b u R g, g e R m a n y }

When Jan Schawe sought to open Mutterland, a delicatessen-café in the heart of Hamburg, he strived to create a
concept that better connected people to local, high quality food. A reflection of his own philosophy and taste, the
name Mutterland (motherland) is suggestive of the type of
menu items and delicatessen products carefully selected
and made in-house since 2007. Mutterland’s cakes, sandwiches, jams, muesli and soups pay homage to traditional German home style (how mother made it) cuisine and
highlights time honoured recipes from around the country.

At Mutterland’s three locations, Jan and his team only
work with small family owned manufacturers in Germany
to stock the floor to ceiling wooden crates (shelves) and
displays throughout the store. ”The interior of Mutterland
is democratic and not snobby, which means people will
feel comfortable to come inside“ says Jan. The Mutterland head office on Ernst-Merck-Straße is divided into a 26
seat café with large chalkboard walls as the backdrop and
a delicatessen showcasing the various cheeses, meats,
quiches, pastries and specialty food items such as small
batch olive oils, jams, honey, pasta, beverages, chocolates,
sauces and spices.
What’s next for the six year old company? ”Lots of people
have contacted us about opening concepts like Mutterland
in other parts of Germany. We want to grow slowly. Up next,
we are rebuilding our web-shop for spring 2014, updating
the design of the café and have a new chef in the kitchen.“
www.mutterland.de

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//Food

FiVe loCal items FoR tHe pantRy:
01 borgmann 1772 premium Herb liqueur
(berlin): The Borgmann family started making this spe-

cial (and secret) blend of indigenous herbs by hand in its
family pharmacy in 1772 in Berlin.

02 marge Feine Kreationen jam (Hamburg):

Produces a variety of homemade, hand labelled, seasonal
marmalades, pesto and jellies. Moin Hamburg, a blend of
grapefruit, banana, peach and passion fruit is made exclusively for Mutterland. â&#x20AC;?Moinâ&#x20AC;&#x153; is a greeting to say hello used
in the Lower Saxony region of northwestern Germany and
Southern Jutland in Denmark.

03 Kaiser Honig lime and ginger (berlin):

Started by Kris Kaiser in Berlin, Kaiser Honey makes a variety of flavoured honeys and honey based spreads in the
city.

Anti-Mafia Gift Baskets
{ C o p e n h ag e n, D ENMA R K }
Growing up in Palermo, Sicily, home of the Cosa Nostra (Sicilian mafia), Riccardo Adragna the founder of Social Good
Stories, was conscious about the importance of supporting socially and ethically responsible producers when he
launched his online gift basket business in Copenhagen.
In the 1980s, Italy adopted a law to confiscate the property
and assets of the mafia. Local organizations such as Libera Terra, gathered over a 1 million signatures to sponsor
a bill to redistribute the confiscated mafia assets to the
community for social projects, and cooperatives.
Social Good Stories connects consumers to socially responsible food producers by arranging gift baskets packed
with socially responsible items. For example, the breakfast basket contains marmalades from Libera Terra, coffee
from a small Ugandan cooperative, and honey from Bybi, a
local organization that trains and employs homeless people to become apiarists. The Christmas hamper has a wine
from a Sicilian producer whose brother was killed by the
mafia and extra virgin olive oil from a NGO where Arab and
Israeli women work together.
www.socialgoodstories.dk

Photo Credit: Social Good Stories

Documenting Food on Film
{Europe}

Photo Credit: The Making Of

City life often comes with its advantages; one of which is access to a variety of food. We head to specialty stores, local
grocers, supermarkets or hypermarkets to do our shopping
and typically make a choice based on familiarity, necessity,
price, packaging, word of mouth or convenience. However,
as the team behind The Making Of film project questioned,
why don’t the people and the story behind the product play a
greater role in influencing the decision process?

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From this starting point, Ignacio and Constanze aimed to explore and document a better way to connect people and food.
”Our videos are about people who started food projects within
their lifetime, as opposed to having inherited a running business. These individuals successfully created their own projects. For these producers, being featured in one of our short
films means certain recognition to their life´s work“ says
Ignacio. Currently, the group has made 15 films which are
posted on their website and will be posting more soon.

www.themaking-of.eu

//Food

{ B e i r u t, L e b a n o n }

Photo Credit: Giacomo Perasti

”Food is the best expression of tradition, yet people have
lost the link with the origin of their food,“ laments Kamal
Mouzawak, founder of Souk el Tayeb, a Beirut food organization inspired to ”Make Food, Not War.“ The organization
brings together farmers’ markets, food festivals, educational projects, and now Tawlet, a farmers’ market kitchen.
As the son of farmers and producers, Kamal has first-hand
experience about the generosity of the land and the connection between food and people. After travelling around
Lebanon and exploring its ethnic and geographic diversity,
he concluded that despite being a divided people, ”we are
all the same.“
Kamal started Souk el Tayeb (Good Market) in 2004, later joined by social enterprise consultant and managing
partner Christine Codsi, to create a common ground from
which to showcase the wonderful food and agricultural
traditions of his country. What started out as a weekly Saturday morning producer-focused farmers’ market blossomed into other food projects
celebrating local specialties
and promoting sustainable agriculture. The organization is as
much about relinking the urban
and rural — the producer and
the consumer — as it is about
providing an engaging gastronomic experience. Take, for instance, Tawlet, Souk el Tayeb’s
newest project that intentionally
shifts the role of producers from
”suppliers“ to ”chefs.“ Set in an
open kitchen, farmers become
culinary ambassadors as they
are invited to transform their
own produce into regional delicacies for market patrons to try.
”Food is just a commodity product on a supermarket shelf.
We have forgotten who planted it, who harvested it, and
who cooked it“ says Kamal. With someone this devoted to
championing local farming and food tradition, there is no
doubt that his organization will continue to have a positive
cultural and economic impact on Beirut and beyond.
www.soukeltayeb.com

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Photo Credit: Wondermilk (M) Sdn Bhd

//Food

Designing Cuppacakes
{ p e ta l i n g j aya , m a l ay s i a }
In a country like Malaysia where eating is a national pastime, it is not hard to see why the intricately designed and
themed cupcakes by +Wondermilk is a hit in Petaling Jaya,
a city just outside of Kuala Lumpur. In fact, +Wondermilk’s
cupcakes would win over the eyes and stomachs of any
passerby. What started off as a graphic design bureau has
evolved to include a variety of creative businesses in the
city including an art gallery for upcoming young urban artists, a small retail operation which sells quirky handmade
goods and Cuppacakes, +Wondermilk’s bakery.
One reason why Cuppacakes stands out is the team is run
by graphic designers-turned bakers. Their three retail
shops are a take on a New York loft, with exposed brick
walls, industrial fixtures and a homey collection of mix and
match furniture. In addition to their 25 cupcake flavours,
they also concoct cakes, cookies, gift items and occasionally, home décor items. ”Our most popular flavor would be
our Foxy Red Velvet cupcake. It’s a light, fluffy and scrumptious take on the classic flavor topped with a not too sweet
cream cheese frosting“ Ifzan Ibrahim shares, one of
+Wondermilk’s founders. However it is not uncommon to
find unusual combinations such as lychee with rose buttercream, avocado and pineapple, durian with vanilla and
jackfruit with thyme.
www.ilovecuppacakes.com

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{ W r i t t e n B y K r i s t i n P e dr o j a }

Salvatore
Malatesta was responsible for igniting
Melbourne’s coffee
scene. Malatesta
opened his first café
in 1996 while studying at the University
of Melbourne. Today his St Ali empire includes some
of the best coffee
outlets in the country including St Ali, Sensory Lab, Plantation, and Clement Coffee. He has a natural knack for
knowing what the Melbourne coffee drinker wants and caters to everyone, from latte-drinkers to specialty geeks. ”I
am always the end user“ he says of his many businesses.
”If I can’t find something I want, I create it.“ He strongly believes in building relationships with farmers, and spends
many months of the year on the road at origin, along with
travelling the world giving keynote lectures and educating
others about his trade. ”I am an aggressive PR machine for
the Melbourne coffee experience“ he says. ”I want to share
this passion with the world.“
Newer to the coffee scene, Mark Knapp and business partner Nick Edgar opened their coffee shop, Balderdash in the
beachside suburb of Port Melbourne in November 2010.
Their café has become a highly frequented coffee destination and has developed a reputation for its delicious, locally-sourced food and an innovative coffee menu. ”Coffee

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is an obsession. Everyone has an opinion about
how it should be served
and how it should taste.
Food in Melbourne is an
obsession, too, and this is integral to
the coffee movement“ says Mark.
Head a few kilometers north of the
river to trendy Collingwood and
you’ll find Proud Mary, a buzzy
cafe owned by Nolan Hirte. Nolan’s passion is to educate
Melbournians about ethical
and sustainable coffee. A former Barista Champion, he now
sources and roasts coffee under
the Proud Mary name. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was so
impressed with Nolan’s coffee
and Proud Mary that he featured
Nolan on his website. ”As long
as it gets people really thinking
about origin and sustainability“ Nolan
says of his notoriety. ”There are a few
really great specialty roasters and
café owners in Melbourne, and we all
share the same ethos. We know each
other well and are growing and learning together as a community.“

Photo Credit: Matthew Strachan

With a coffee scene bordering on obsessive, Melbourne is
mentioned alongside London and Portland for having one
of the most vibrant coffee scenes in the world. And it’s not
just any coffee; Melbourne is undergoing a coffee renaissance, where local roasters increasingly go direct to farmers to obtain beans and where drinking filter coffee from
obscure plantations is all the rage. Starbucks even had to
shut several of its locations (there are currently only six in
the city) due to the strong network of independent coffee
shops and local brands.

Visiting the Moroccan
city of Marrakech is
like entering an oasis
of tastes and smells.
Africa’s busiest square,
the historic Jemaa el
Fnaa, teems with locals
and tourists looking to
shop, socialize and feast
after the day’s heat dissipates.
If you can navigate the
square’s dizzying jumble of motorcycles, acrobats, snake charmers,
belly dancers, henna
artists and spice vendors
vying for your attention,
you’ll soon reach food
lovers delight. Spiced lamb and chicken kebabs, warm
scented couscous, steamy escargot, fresh orange juice and
exotic almond pastries are spilling from rows of street food
stalls. Hearty and aromatic tagines, for which Morocco is
legendary, are served in what becomes an open-air restaurant by night.
Spices are used extensively in Moroccan cuisine, and the
local cumin, cinnamon, ginger, saffron, coriander and
brick-red paprika is deliciously potent. Nearby souks
(North African market stalls) offer bulk spices for those
eager to duplicate recipes at home.
No visit to Marrakech is complete without endless cups of
sweet mint tea. Made with green tea, fresh mint and sugar,
this hot drink is typically enjoyed with friends and family
multiple times throughout the day.
The exotic and aromatic cuisine of Marrakech is a rewarding treat for the adventurous food traveller. I, for one, can’t
wait to return.

Photo Credit: Emily Baillie

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Liquid Art

{ C o p e n H ag e n, D e n m a R K }

In an inconspicuous building across from Denmark’s oldest museum, The Thorvaldsens, you’ll find Ruby: a livingroom style two-floor bar responsible for concocting some
of Copenhagen’s finest cocktails.
When Ruby opened its doors in the summer of 2007, it
was the only spot of its kind along the quiet strip of canal. The opening of Rasmus and Adeline Shepherd Lomborg’s cocktail spot coincided with the rise of the popular
American television series Mad Men, a show that helped
kick-start a renewed interest in classic cocktails. ”In the
beginning, a lot of guys didn’t know what an Old Fashioned
was, so they would order it and stand around not daring to
admit that it was too strong for them“ says Sune RisumUrth, part of Ruby’s management team.
Ruby’s beverages, which change seasonally, are simple
to the eye yet offer guests an unhurried taste of aromatic
art. Coupled with Ruby’s attentiveness to guests, theirs is
a craft that reveals another facet of the city’s unwavering
delivery of memorable sensory experiences.
www.ruby.dk

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//Food

02 whAt liQUoR oR liQUeUR

liQuiD musings by sune
Risum-uRtH oF Ruby

01 whAt ARe some UnUsUAl
oR lesseR Known liQUoRs
thAt cAn Be FoUnd At RUBY?
We really like things like Cocchi,
averna and Cynar - these great italian bitters that can make grown men
weep. more locally we have a hand
in the making of a very small batch
absinth and we have just ﬁnished
our triple macerated peach brandy,
that one is probably the rarest we
have as there never exist more than
3 bottles of it.

Rooted in dAnish cUltURe?
+ the House of Heering is a cherry
liqueur that was created in Denmark
by peter Heering in 1818. it is made
by soaking lightly crushed Danish cherries with spices and grain
spirits. their cherry liqueur is more
or less the standard go to cherry liqueur all over the world. between
that and a good maraschino, you
have all the cherry you could ask for.
+ then of course there is the Danish
spirit called, aquavit which has been
produced since the 15th century.
it shares a fate with gin such that
it was shunned for many years as
altmodisch (outdated) and unsexy.
the problem with aquavit is not the
product itself; it’s the ritual around
it. if i had to drink scotch ice cold
and in a shower of shots, i probably
wouldn’t enjoy that either. However,
when you taste it, it is truly wonderful, and great for mixing. myrtle and
red fruit make a great combination
with aquavit for example.

03 whAt FlAVoURs will YoU
Be PAiRinG this FAll?
apples and plums are always a hit.
they start to ripen in late july and
some of the denser apples won’t be
ready until october. We get several
months of new ﬂavours and ever
darker days. on a completely different note we just ﬁnished a pistachio
orgeat, and we are positive that pistachio is going to be all the rage this
fall.
countlan

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//Food

What’s Cooking:
A N T O N I A C A F AT I
b e e t R o o t- C a C a o C a K e
ReCipe
the cake has a nice moist texture, the taste is a combination of cacao with a mild almond after taste. the
blueberries give it a fresh tone.

Ca K e :
1/2 cup of dates (if the dates are too dry, cook them in
a pot with 1/2 cup of water on low heat until the water
evaporates)
4 spoons of honey
1/3 cup of virgin coconut oil
1 1/2 cup of rice milk (you can use almond, oat or any
other non-dairy milk)
1 egg (if you are vegan replace it with 2 spoons of linseed with a bit of water, imitating the texture of an egg)
1/2 cup beetroot purée (2 beetroots cooked and mashed)
1/3 cup bitter cacao powder
1 1/2 cup almond ﬂour
1 cup polenta
1/2 cup chopped almonds

porotos granados con mazamorra is one of the few typical Chilean vegetarian dishes. it is a summer soup with fresh beans (porotos), corn puree (mazamorra), basil and vegetables.
Chirimoya alegre (custard apple and orange juice) is a super natural and fresh Chilean dessert.

//Food
Antonia Cafati the Santiago, Chile based vegetarian chef,
teacher, writer and blogger behind Brotes y Racices: miscellanea naturista shares a recipe for autumn.
”I chose this recipe for its natural sweetness. It is ideal to
serve it with hot herbal tea when it’s cold outside. The fact
that the cake is made with dates, beetroot and honey, gives
it just the right amount of sweetness without going overboard. I also wanted to use the last blueberries and flowers of the summer as a reminder of the warm season.“

inst RuCt ions:
preheat oven to 180C/350F. put the
dates, honey and coconut oil in food
processor, and blend until puréed.
add the rice milk, egg and beetroot
purée until you get a homogeneous
mix. place the mix in a bowl, add the
cacao, almond ﬂour, and polenta,
stir well (it works better if you add
the ingredients one by one). Finally
add the chopped almonds. place the
mix in a greased pan (with a bit of
sunﬂower oil) and bake in the oven
for 40-45 minutes.

CRea m Fi lli ng:
add the almonds, water, honey, lemon juice and coconut oil in a food
processor and pulse until you get a
cream.

Ca Ke a ssemb ly:
When the cake is cool, take it out of
the pan and slice it in half creating
two layers. place the ﬁrst layer on
a plate, pour a bit of rice milk in a
spoon and use it to moisten the cake
by sprinkling it on top. next, spread
the almond cream across the cake
followed by a layer of blueberries.
place the second cake layer on top
of the ﬁrst and repeat with the cream
and blueberries.
Decorate with edible ﬂowers and/or
aromatic herbs, such as peppermint.

not e:
the ﬁlling is meant to be consumed
fresh (within two days) otherwise
the color changes and starts to oxidize because of its raw preparation.

countlan
Photo Credit: Sebastian Mejia

29

//Food

What’s Cooking:
LIZ AND JEWELS
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR
RECIPE FOR AUTUMN?
LIz:
I just happen to love chestnuts!
I love collecting them and can’t
wait until the christmas-markets
start, where you can find roasted
chestnuts.

Photo Credits: Lisa Nieschlag (L) + Julia Cawley (R)

JEWELs:
I also really like chestnuts. And
soups are just so easy to make.
Especially in the fall, when it gets
nasty outside, a warm, delicious
soup is just the right thing to get
comfy inside.
A MUST TRY IN MÜNSTER:
Currywurst + fries from Dieks
Kaffee & Curry at the weekly
market, coffee from roestbar, a
small private roasting house and
waffles from Milchmaedel.
A M U S T T R Y I N B R O O K LY N :
Australian feta from the Bedford
Cheese Shop in Williamsburg,
a doughnut from the famous
doughnut place called Dough and
an espresso from one of the many
new really good coffee places we
have here.

Although Muenster and
Brooklyn are separated
by an ocean, geography
didn’t stop designer
and cookbook author, Liz and photographer and food blogger, Jewels from cooking
gether. Their blog, Liz and Jewels, catalogues the adventures of two girls cooking on
continents.

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Online, Liz and Jewels tackle the same recipe using local ingredients and photograph the
results. Putting their talents together, they also launched a series of workshops on foo
styling and photography which they run in Weimar, Münster and New York. For autumn
they tested a chestnut soup and shared the recipe with Countlan.

instRuCtions:
Dice onion, fry in butter, add chestnuts, and then add the broth. Cut
mushrooms, add to soup (put a few
on the side to use as garnish). Let
the soup boil for 5 to 10 minutes. In
the meantime fry mushrooms you
reserved as a garnish in a pan with
some oil or butter. Puree the soup
and add salt and pepper if needed.
You can also add a splash of cream, if
you like creamy soups. Garnish with
thyme and crĂ¨me fraiche.

g totwo

eir
od
n,

countlan

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//Food

A Taste of Autumn in
Souther n Califor nia
{ W R i t t e n b y e Va Ko s m a s }
While the greater Los Angeles area
does not experience autumn, 90 minutes away by car, nestled in the shade
of the San Bernadino Mountains is
a little part of Southern California
where a cooler climate not only exists, but brings crisp air and a change
of season. Driving down Oak Glen
Road and around the Potato Canyon
loop, visitors find themselves surrounded by acres of apple orchards
and pumpkin fields.

The scenic byway is dotted with little stands serving fresh-pressed cider, pie, and apple tastings; a true
fall smorgasbord. Of the farms in the
area, Snow Line Orchard remains a
favourite. It harbors a secret sweet
treat: mini-apple cider donuts. The
cinnamon sugar coated donuts are
made with the orchardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own freshpressed cider and are served in a
small paper bag. The texture of their
donuts are light and fluffy on the inside with a slight apple aftertaste and
crunchy on the outside enhanced by
the generous sprinkling of sugar and
cinnamon granules. If you buy them
fresh, the piping hot donuts are the
perfect snack to accompany a stroll
through the orchardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s raspberry
patch and apple trees.

//Food
baKeD apple
CiDeR Donuts
ReCipe
After my visit to Snow Line Orchard, I
decided to make their baked apple cider donuts so I wouldn’t have to wait
a year to taste them again. My donuts
were more cake-like than the fluffier
ones at the orchard, but tasted just
as good and slightly healthier since I
baked them rather than frying them.
For a taste of autumn from Southern
California, give these little guys a try
next time you host a gathering.

instRuCtions:
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. In a small bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients and set aside. In a large
mixing bowl, beat together the liquid ingredients until
smooth. Add the flour mixture and stir gently until just incorporated.
Scoop the mixture into the donut wells in the pan, filling
them up a tad over 3/4 full. Place in the oven and bake for
15 to 20 minutes, or until the donuts have risen and are
lightly golden on top. Remove the pans from the oven and
allow the donuts to cool until they’re still warm, but easy
to handle.
While they’re cooling, mix together the cinnamon and sugar for the coating in a small bowl. While the donuts are
still warm, toss them in the cinnamon sugar mixture until
coated and serve.

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33

Photo Source: IPAC Photo Source: IPAC

//Design

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//Design

Museums are not only great cultural institutions
for learning, they also offer a treasure trove of
conversation pieces for the table.
We look at three museum shops with a notable
array of tableware items and meet several tableware designers who can be proud to call the
museum a point of sale for their work.

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//Design

TABLETOP HIP SHOPS
{ W R i t t e n b y C o s i m a o pa R ta n }

01

Le Petit Atelier de Paris - Paris
Two young designers opened the shop in the Marais district
in 2005. In their boutique/workshop, you will findÂ handmade porcelain objects and other delicate items with a
graphic touch.Â

02

Chic Cham - Lausanne
Chic Cham is an interior decoration brand that produces
beautiful natural materials and poetic products for everyday life which are handmade in India. Their designers interpret fashion and trends to give the products a very contemporary identity.

Folklore - London
Husband and wife team behind Folklore stock the shelves of their store
with items that communicate craftsmanship, quality and durability. Their
homeware, furniture and lifestyle
items are a compilation of handmade,
antique or recycled items.

04

Labour and Wait - London
Purveyors of a variety of household
goods, Labour and Wait has a strong
vintage feel to its merchandise and
includes everyday classics which are
guaranteed to become your favourites with age.

//Design

I n ou r on goin g design ser ies, M ade In explores the countr y of or igin of tableware
items in an attempt to dispel purchasing
biases often associated with a countr yâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
image With the ongoing â&#x20AC;?made inâ&#x20AC;&#x153; rhetor ic in retail stores, on products and in the
media, this highly polar ized topic about
who makes the best x is wor thy of consideration and discover y on the following
pages.

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//Design

BLinD Wine
{ j i Z e R a m o u n ta i n s, C Z e C H R e p u b l i C }
When oenophiles taste wine, the importance of visually assessing the
contents of a glass is well understood. To challenge this step, Eva Mochalová and Marcel Mochal of LLEV
Product Design designed the Decci, a
black, glossy, opaque wine glass that
masks the drinker’s ability to see its
liquid contents. ”You can’t see wine
when you drink from the Decci black
but you can smell it; in this way, you
perceive wine in a different way“ Eva
shares.
The Decci set contains glasses for red
and white wine, water or beer, a decanter and champagne also comes in
crystal.
www.llev.cz

Photo Credit: LLEV Product Design

City Cookies
{ b e R l i n, g e R m a n y }

Photo Credit: Phil Goods

When Philipp, an amateur baker, recognized he was missing a Brandenburg Gate cookie cutter in his collection, the
Berlin based family therapist sought to make one himself. After locating a suitable manufacturer in Berlin who
could produce the famous monument, Philipp’s cookie
cutter was completed in 2007. He recognized his Brandenburg Gate cookie cutter not only cut out great cookie buildings but also were useful as souvenirs.
He set up his company, Phil Goods, and proceeded to design 21 global monuments, as well as, a celebrity series
of prominent people such as Johann Sebastian Bach and
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Each cookie cutter comes with
Philipp’s favourite vanilla cookie recipe.
www.phil-goods.com

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//Design

Clever Clippes
{ t u s Ca n y, i ta ly }
Leave it to Italian ingenuity to turn
scrap metal into an iconic product
line. Since the 1960s, kitchenware
manufacturer, IPAC, has been producing multifunctional clips from discarded stainless steel remnants.
”The Clippe was born from the byproduct of a request by the Museum
of Modern Art in New York. They were
searching for the original producer
of Antonio Chiti’s CLIP 01 to make a
product called ”TOWER OF CLIPS“
says Paola Pagni with IPAC. Renewed
interest in the clip inspired the owner
of IPAC to develop the Clippe collection- first as a joke, then in cooperation with other designers.
Today there are 56 different Clippes
from forks and milk boxes, to cocktail
stirrers, flower holders and strawberry tongs.
www.clippe.it

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Photo Credit: IPAC

//Design

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41

T EXTURED C UPS
{ a m s e R F o o R t, t H e n e t H e R l a n D s }
Inspired by the texture of skin, Studio
PS launched TAPED, a colourful series of 16 porcelain cups that give the
user a tactile experience while drinking.
The outside of the cup was left unglazed so the drinker feels each
wrinkle on his or her fingertips. ”We
have always been fascinated by materials, the way they look, feel and the
attention they attract. We love how a
tactile feeling can add a special experience to a simple activity such as
drinking coffee“ says Peter, one of the
co-founders of Studio PS.
Using pigmented porcelain, masking
tape and plaster for molding, each
cup is made to have its own identity
like skin.
www.studio-ps.nl

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Photo Credit: Marvin de Kievit Photography

//Design

//Design

TABLE BAGS
{ t u s Ca n y, i ta ly }
When the family of six who run Le Sorelle (the sisters),
a retail store and design bottega in Tuscany, gather for
a meal, there are always plenty of beautiful accessories
from which to choose. The two parents and four daughters
who work together in the family business excel at making objects to adorn the table like their terracotta bread
warmers, ceramic plates, glass jugs and hand printed
tablecloths. While their Tuscany inspired table items are
popular, internationally they have developed a reputation for their hard-to-pronounce paper bags. Le Sorelle’s
UASHMAMA (pronounced wash-mama), is a series of
decorative paper bags that is used to hold everything from
bread and herbs to plants and cutlery.

Photo Credit: Le Sorelle

For Marco, Emanuela, Chiara, Giulia, Gemma and Gaia,
design has been a family affair for generations. ”My grandfather owned a women’s shoe factory in Tuscany and my
father worked by his side for many years where he learned
about materials, colours and product design. 20 years ago,
my parents decided to start something new“ says Giulia,
one of the four sisters. In 1994, Emanuela Sarti (Giulia’s
mother) opened a small home décor and fashion accessories store in the historic square of Montecatini Alto. She
had a strong desire to produce the objects herself and enlisted the design and manufacturing expertise of her husband to create the merchandise.
Later on, in an effort to bridge traditional manufacturing
methods with technological innovation, Marco developed
the idea for the washable cellulose fiber material used to
make UASHMAMA bags. With the success of their growing product lines, the family opened three more Le Sorelle
shops, two in Tuscany, and most recently, a fourth store in
Florence close to the Ponte Vecchio.
www.uashmama.it

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//Design

Pop-Up Retail Food Mu
Transforming a flagship store into a three-dimensional
cookbook exhibition is no small feat. To expand on the 2012
launch of Normann Food, the recipe concept of Danish design company, Normann Copenhagen, the entrance hall of
the company’s flagship store was converted into a life size
food and kitchenware exhibit.
The store’s all-white gallery-like entrance was brightened
by 12 recipes devised by Peter Elmegaard, the store’s Retail Director and exhibited alongside arty installations of
Normann Copenhagen’s kitchen collection inspiring visitors to think creatively when serving their dishes at home.
www.normanncopenhagen.com

Discovering
Conversation Pieces
It turns out, museum shops are no longer staid. Rather,
they offer a cornucopia of conversation pieces for the table.

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//Design

useum

{ C o p e n h ag e n, D e n m a rk }

Photo Credit: Normann Copenhagen

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45

//Design

{Vienna}

tHRee ConVeRsation pieCes:

Mu
MoK

wool Blanket by Peter Kogler’s (Artist’s
edition): great for keeping guests warm
while dining outside and it’s large enough for
several people to share at once.
Pendant lights by nUd: although simple in
design, they add ambiance and great light to
a dining room.
Recycled Bags by caritas for mUmoK.
these bags are made from recycling mumoK’s exhibition banners. they are designed
and produced in cooperation with Vienna’s
Caritas, an organization that runs the design
project with long-term unemployed youth.

When the MUMOK moved to its new
home in Vienna’s Museums Quartier
in 2001, the 850 square foot museum
shop designed by architects, Ortner
& Ortner, was relocated to the ground
floor of the building and the store’s
product selection was rethought. To
reflect its new space, all the typical museum shop products were
swapped out in favour of procuring
more interesting objects from local Austrian artists, young European
designers and special artist edition
pieces created for MUMOK.
www.mumok.at

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Photo Credit: MUMOK

//Design

THE DESIGN MUSEUM SHOP

{singapoRe}

The Red Dot Design Museum’s Design Museum Shop is a
natural extension of the exhibition and a showcase for the
internationally sought after design award that recognizes
high quality in product design. Housed in the iconic Red
Dot Traffic building, the museum and its shop occupy the
former Singapore traffic police headquarters, a building
which dates back to the British colonial era. The building’s
bright red façade can’t be missed and draws attention to
those who come to visit the area.
The Design Museum shop sits in a glass enclosed retail
space and has an urban, futuristic feel. While the shop’s
retail mix favours Red Dot Design Award winning products,
which enables guests to bring home their favourite items
from the museum, visitors can also find the work of local
Singaporean artists such as Mei from DUSK, Colin Chen
from Fabrix and John Chan’s famous ”Singlish“ book.
www.designmuseumshop.sg

tHRee ConVeRsation pieCes:
the Aquarium dumbell
by shinichi sumikawa: its
elegant trophy like shape is a
great conversation starter on
the table.

Photo Credit: Design Museum Shop

the Geo Vacuum Flask by
normann copenhagen: a
colourful and visually appealing way to serve liquids to
guests.
the An&angel deco Bowl
by Artis nimanis: every table needs a bowl with elegance and simplicity.

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47

//Design

DOX

{ p R ag u e }

It is only fitting that Czech design dynamo, Jakub Berdych
of Studio Qubus, was invited to join forces with the DOX
Centre for Contemporary Art to curate the gallery store.
Before it was transformed into DOX, the Holesovice (Prague
7) art center was originally a factory that dated back to the
early 1900s.
In 2005, the site was redesigned by Kroupa Architects, a
studio known for its modern, functionalist architecture
and DOX opened in 2008. The 1000 square foot, all white,
minimalist design store carries the best of Czech glass,
porcelain and jewelry products. The shop also features the
work of young Czech designers and frequently organizes
in-store exhibitions to showcase new work.
www.qubus.cz / www.dox.cz

tHRee ConVeRsation pieCes:
soup terrine by silvie lubenovรก of maestrokatastrof: this illustrator is known for taking old pieces
of china and applying humourous or
ironic illustrations on its surfaces,
which makes for some funny soup.
marble tableware by studio
deform: perfect for bringing a natural element to the table.
decorated Plates by eva Pelechovรก: Her plates which are decorated with photography and gold rims
turn food into works of art.

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Photo Credit: DOX

//Design

In an age when...

growing numbers
of people tend to think
dangerously alike,

artÂ´s capacity
to suspend,

even for a moment,
our habitual ways

of seeing
may well prove to be of its

{ greatest value. }

- D OX M o t t o

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//Design

The return of Bordallo
{ W R i t t e n b y Ca R l a i s i D o R o }
Raphael Bordallo Pinheiro died in Lisbon in 1905. More
than 100 years after his death, his work underwent a complete transformation in Portuguese society; for the better.
Brodallo’s name is a reference – probably the largest - in
Portuguese faience, a tin-glazed earthenware, tiles and
popular iconography of the 20th century. He was a pioneer
in Portuguese caricature yet his talent was multifaceted
and ranged from illustrations and plastic arts to ceramics.
In 1884, he founded the Faience Ceramics Factory in Caldas da Rainha, a city in central Portugal that is well known
for its ceramics industry and is home to ESCAD, one of the
top 100 architecture and design schools in Europe.
A few years ago, the Bordallo Pinheiro factory was set to
close its doors. For decades the factory produced copies
of Bordallo’s original decorative tableware, tiles and ceramics, but his style had fallen out of favour resulting in
fewer orders and slowing demand from clients.

Illustrations by: Philip Kennedy

The revival of his work is important in the current context
of society as the Portuguese are once again turning their
attention to traditions of the past. The military revolution
of 1974 and the rise of democracy in Portugal resulted in
certain cultural manifestations being buried or forgotten.
Bordallo’s pieces were commonly used in households up
until 1974. After that, all forms of art and culture related
to the past (and by extension, dictatorship) were avoided.

Furthermore, from a contemporary
perspective, Bordallo’s work was often considered tacky and connoted
bad taste by the younger generation
who was either indifferent or unaware of his art form. Recognizing
the risk of losing such an important
popular art reference, a handful of
entrepreneurs and artists banded
together to revive Bordallo’s faience
into something cool and trendy.
Alongside the global design trend
and interest in vintage items, Bordallo’s revival was perfectly timed. Coincidently, Portugal’s Visabeira Group,
a producer of fine Portuguese china,
bought the Bordallo Pinheiro factory
and suddenly, Bordallo’s products
became a must have. They graced
the pages of lifestyle magazines, sold
well in vintage stores, markets and
decoration stores and were used on
the tables of restaurants and cafes.
Today, young people ask for their
grandmother’s permission to use
vintage Bordallo pieces at home or
on urban picnics.

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www.bordallopinheiro.pt

Photo Credit: Bordallo Pinheiro

//Design

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//Design

SouP Presentation
{ N e w Yo rk , USA }

Taking soup presentation to new
heights, the Lantern, a bowl specifically designed to hold Vietnamese
Pho soup, was inspired by the shape
of a Vietnamese paper lantern and
functionally driven by the soup’s condiments and utensils. The recent success of his Kickstarter campaign has
enabled designer, Omid Sadri to put
his Lantern stacking tableware into
production.

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Photo Credit: Avishan Amanat

Sadri’s Lantern is made of porcelain and the exterior is coated with
a matte glaze to enhance the design
and feel of the bowl. It is comprised
of four pieces that seamlessly stack
with one another. The spoon has a
small notch so it can rest on top of
the bowl without sliding off. The top
dish holds lemon or lime, onions, and
peppers. The middle dish is for herbs
and bean sprouts and the bowl holds
the soup and chopsticks.

//Design

Photo Credit: Tina Frey

MATERIAL
Resin is a curious material that pops
up in tableware design from time
to time. When the self-taught, San
Francisco based, resin artist, Tina
Frey started working with the material in 2007, customers often wondered
whether her dishes and bowls were
made of glass or ceramic. Resin
is a different base material all
together and is neither related to glass, nor clay. The
synthetic, polyester-based
resin that Frey uses turns into
a light, durable material once the
thermoset cures after being cast
into a mold and allowed to set on its
own. Resin can break if you drop it
on the ground, but it does not shatter
like class or porcelain. It breaks into
larger pieces, making it safer for outdoor, poolside or kitchen use. ”I love
the translucency and variety of colours available with resin“ says Frey.
After much research and laboratory
testing to find a resin that is foodsafe, BPA-free and lead-free, Tina
got to work on creating her line of
unique housewares and table top accessories. As she gained experience
and understanding of the material,
she realized its versatility — music to
a creative person’s ears (and hands).
”If I can sculpt it, I can make it in
resin. When I develop new products,
sometimes I imagine elaborate dinner parties and what I would like to
use with guests.“ Tina launches two
collections a year to coincide with exhibitions in New York and Paris.

This season, she is introducing a resin
furniture line, including long benches
and round coffee tables. ”I imagine the
benches to be used with a long farm
table with many guests all squeezed
on it, dining with my tableware.“
www.tinafreydesigns.com

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//Entertaining

enTeRTAininG
ENTERTAINING entertaining
entertaining

entertaining

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//Entertaining

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55

Photo Credit: James Geer for A Place Called Home

Autumn entertaining offers plenty of opportunities to connect with guests. No matter how simple or lavish, head to your local farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; market,
pick up the latest in seasonal produce, pair with
some fresh bread, spicy olive oil, and cheese.
No need to fuss over a table setting. Keep things
simple. Set out a few serving platters, coasters,
and plates. Add a few tea lights for coziness and
warmth, chill a bottle of mineral water or wine
and top it off with a bunch of fresh flowers. Now
get set to tuck into an afternoon of connecting.
connecting.

//Entertaining

Notes on Entertaining
with Erin Souder
House of Earnest blogger, Erin shares a few ideas about
what keeps her organized when she entertains weekly, her
trustworthy tools and her entertaining style.
”I love seeing people happy. Entertaining is a gratifying
way to socialize and motivates me to learn new tips, recipes, and hostess tricks from others.“

01 What

is your biggest entertaining pet

peeve?
My pet peeve is a messy bar. Bottle caps, drips, trash, and
empties cloud the aesthetic. I like to have a mini trash can
(like a pretty ice bucket) near the bar for such things.

02

What does your organization process
look like before guests arrive?
I am a big planner. For example, I will make a dish in advance to test the recipe; I setup serving dishes with Post-It
notes to indicate what will go where, and plan my timeline
for the day. Organizing in this way helps me to enjoy the
night by awarding me more time with my guests!

03 How would you describe your entertain-

ing style?
My style is casually indulgent. I have a few go-to snack
plates for drop-ins, pretty patterned napkins, stirrers,
straws, and platters on hand to make everything appear
very put-together even if the gathering is last minute. I
find extra details always make guests feel doted on and
indulged.

04 What entertaining tools
do you live by?
A Cutting Board: I cannot live
without a beautiful cutting board. It
makes a great focal point for a bar
(lemons, limes and garnishes) or
a fabulous foundation for a cheese
platter. A beautifully grained board
will also make a gorgeous platter for
passing around appetizers or canapés and work as a trivet when something hot is going down on the table.
Bar Tools:
Pretty bar tools that actually work.

5. Apron- Grey,
Williams-Sonoma

Linen Cocktail Napkins:
A good set of linen cocktail napkins;
they even make drop-by guests feel
super special.
A Wireless Bluetooth Speaker:
A wireless Bluetooth speaker so you
can play music outside or inside and
change tunes fast from your phone.
An Apron:
An apron has saved my life on several occasions. I like to put finishing
touches on dishes that I serve while
guests are there, so a nice apron ensures that I don’t splatter the soufflé
on myself.
3.

To celebrate the harvest flower shop owner, Martin Reinicke, hosts an annual gathering at his country home north
of Copenhagen. Together with the help of his friend, photographer and food stylist, Tina Brok Hansen, the pair put
together a Moroccan harvest dinner for twenty friends.
”Autumn is my favourite time of year and we wanted to create a meal with lots of veggies“ Tina shares.
The day before the event, Tina and Martin headed up north
to prep the garden where guests would have dinner and
to get a head start on all the chopping for the seven family style dishes they would serve. Since the weather was
conducive to dine outdoors, they decorated Martin’s long,
wooden table for 20 made by a local carpenter and used all
sorts of left over flowers from his shop. Down the center of
the table they added a row of small apples from the apple
tree in the garden. Tina and Martin created a cozy, rustic
setting as the backdrop for a lively evening of music, good
food and a relaxing respite away from the city.

Sometimes travel is all you need for a mental refresh. In the case of Guy Michlin, it was a chance
dinner with a local family while on vacation in Greece that led to a revelation and a new business idea.
EatWith is an online marketplace that brings together local hosts who love to cook and entertain
with travelers and locals looking for a new dining experience (think of AirBnB for eating). ”We are
constantly amazed at the power of food to bring people together. EatWith guests enter the room as
strangers and often leave as friends“ says Michlin.
Since its launch, the company has been inundated with applications from passionate cooks and home
entertainers from around the world. While based in Tel Aviv, a veritable gastronomic hodgepodge,
the company already offers dining experiences in 20 countries.
www.eatwith.com

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//Entertaining

Entertaining Tech
Technology that makes
entertaining better.

Q+A Eric Davich, Co-Founder
of Songza
whAt is YoUR FAVoURite tYPe oF
mUsic to listen to while hostinG A dinneR PARtY?

It depends on the crowd and the occasion of
course. If it’s a fun, casual dinner party with
friends, I’d go for some retro soul and funk like
our ‘60s Soul Dance Party: Deep Cuts playlist or
The World of James Brown. If it’s a more formal
dinner party, I might choose something like For
Sinatra Fans or At Ease with Classical Adagios.

01 sonGZA:

An app that positions music as a lifestyle enhancement. It is entertaining tool we can’t live
without. It’s a free streaming music service with
a massive library of expertly-curated (handpicked by a person) playlists on the internet. We
can’t get enough of Songza’s Music Concierge
which ensures you always have the right playlist
at the right time.

www.songza.com
02 sAY dUcK:

A peep show for tech-savvy, design conscious
users. We are talking about an augmented reality mobile app that helps consumers see products in their home before items are purchased.
Watch Say Duck in action.

www.sayduck.com

Photos Credit: Eat With

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//Entertaining

PaGe
WortHY
BooKS
{syDney}

The highly illustrative book, A Place Called Home: Creating Beautiful Spaces to Call Your Own, by Australian based
freelance interiors, lifestyle and prop stylist, Mr. Jason
Grant provides readers with a creative guide of useful tips
and visuals on how to create a space that is meaningful to
its owner. ”For real life, I don’t believe we need to create
’perfect‘ homes. Instead I think it is about creating a space
that says something special about who you are and your
style of living“ says Grant.

Q+A WITH
MR. JASON GRANT
01 whAt tYPe oF GAtheRinGs
do YoU tYPicAllY host?
Day into night bbQs. i am usually in
charge of the bbQ.
02 which items cAn AlwAYs
Be FoUnd on YoUR tABle
when YoU enteRtAin?
mix and match serving ware, timber
serving boards, classic linen napery
and my good set of stemless wine
glasses, which are perfect for everything from water to wine.
03 AnY AdVice on settinG
the tABle?
Keep it relaxed and casual, not everything needs to match, and think
about statement cutlery and glassware.
04 wheRe do YoU shoP FoR
tABlewARe?
West elm, small spaces (i love small,
independent retailers) and Koskela,
which is a large showroom in sydney that focusses on locally made
design products.
Published by Hardie Grant Books,
Photography by James Geer

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//Entertaining

Modern Country
{ H u D s o n Va l l e y, n e W yo R K }
Q+a: WHat Does moDeRn CountRy looK liKe
as a table setting?
joan: if i were setting a table, i would use vintage or linen cloths, artisan pottery dishes or my white ironstone
dinnerware, hand blown glass simon pearce candlesticks and vases, with seasonal ﬂowers.
abby: i always have some ﬂowers and candles on the table. i collect table linens wherever i go, and i like to mix
them up. i also collect ﬂower containers of all sizes; you
can’t have too many. and i collect candlesticks.

Published by Rizzoli,
Photography by John Gruen

100 miles north of New York City,
amidst the bucolic landscape of farmhouses, winding roads and charming
hamlets is where you will find an antiquing enclave in the Hudson Valley.
The area, named after Henry Hudson,
the famous 17th century British navigator, is where authors, Joan Osofsky
and Abby Adams, stage the setting of
their first book together.
”The Hudson Valley has spectacular
scenery, from the Palisades (monumental cliffs across the river from
New York City) all the way up to the
Adirondacks. In the nineteenth-century, artists like Frederic Church and
Thomas Cole, painted these scenes;
this was the Hudson River School,
America’s first native arts movement. They also inspired architects
and landscape designers and preservationists. On a more intimate level,
there are still lots of working farms,
with barns and silos and fine old
farmhouses, and herds of cows, as a
constant reminder that it’s still an agricultural area“ Abby shares.
The book, Love Where
You Live: At Home in
the Country, profiles 18
homes in the Hudson Valley and New England in an
effort to impart the modern country lifestyle that
both women love.

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//Entertaining
Written By Birgitte BrĂ¸ndsted
Illustrated By Anna KĂśvecses

Danish translator, photographer, mum
and blogger, Birgitte originally hails from
Copenhagen but has lived in Florence for
four years. Her blog, A Dusty Olive Green

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is where she combines her love of travel
and photography with commentary on
daily life in Italy.

//Entertaining
01 CHEEsE:

I like to buy cheese and other delicacies at an amazing place
called Gastronomia Galanti. They have a great selection of high
quality cheese and lots of other Italian delicacies.
Piazza della Libertà 31r. T. +39 055 490359

02 OLIVE OIL:

Tuscan extra virgin olive oil is one of the most famous olive oils
in Italy. If you want to try a place that specializes in oils, visit La
Bottega dell’Olio where you will find all kinds of olive oils and
balsamic vinegars.
Piazza del Limbo 2r. T. +39 055 2670468

03 fLOWERs:

Every Thursday morning you can buy beautiful plants and flowers at really good prices at the small flower market in Via Pellicceria just behind Piazza della Repubblica, under the ”portici“
(The arcades). The selection is great and the atmosphere is nice
and relaxed.
Via Pellicceria.

04 DEssERT:

Since Florence is one of the best places in Italy for ice cream, I
would suggest gelato for dessert. There are so many great gelaterias in Florence, and you can almost always buy big take away
boxes, which you combine yourself and then bring back home.
One place that beats them all is Gelateria dei Neri. Especially
their sorbettos and semifreddi (mousse ice cream) are to die for.
Via dei neri 20-22r. T. +39 055 210034

05 BREAD:

Tuscan bread is traditionally made without salt, and it tastes exactly as it sounds: Boring! Fortunately the bakeries in Florence
have lots of other goodies, especially the schiacciata, which is a
kind of salty pizza bread. I buy mine at Pugi in Piazza San Marco.
Piazza san Marco 9B. T. +39 055 280981

06 TABLEWARE:

In Florence there are many little shops selling ceramics, but they
are often quite touristy and expensive. You can find nice ceramics at the Cascine market, which is held every Tuesday morning.
Parco delle Cascine. Viale Lincoln.

07 OLIVEs:

The indoor food market in San Lorenzo sells amazing olives.
There are lots of different types to choose from and you buy them
by weight.
Piazza del Mercato Centrale.

08 fREsH PAsTA:

Boutique della Pasta Fresca is located in my neighborhood. It
is one of the most famous places for fresh homemade pasta in
Florence. You can get all kinds of pastas such as ravioli, fettucine, tortellini and gnocchi.
Via Domenico Cirillo 2c. +39 055 578087
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